Issue link: https://tmcpulse.uberflip.com/i/1048847
T M C » P U L S E | N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 8 25 the changes that we've had along the way. It's unending. I feel bad, though, because what I really want to do is put myself out of business. I'm not sure I'm ever going to be able to get there. Q | Over the course of your 32-year career, you have pub- lished 91 papers, 57 abstracts and received 23 research grants—all related to the goal of giving people access to afford- able health care. If you had a magic wand and could create the perfect health care system, what would it look like? A | There are lots of people who get poor quality health care. In the Texas Medical Center, we have some of the best institutions in the world. People come from all over the country to go get treatment at many of our hospitals because they are world-renowned. The challenge is to keep that while getting everyone access to the care they need. It's a big, giant information problem in terms of patients. We need to figure out how to analyze our data to get the patient crystal-clear information on which providers are the best and to help providers figure out which are the best treatments. That's the first component. The second thing is there's too much consolidation in the industry and I'm really very concerned about it. I don't think consumers understand how pervasive consolidation has been for the last three decades, but it is steadily raising prices. The final thing is to somehow build the right incentives for people to engage in healthy lifestyles. That's a big puzzle. The challenge of how to do that without disadvan- taging a lot of people who don't have the resources to live healthy lifestyles is pretty hard. (continued)